An interesting read from I'mnotsorrydotnet

This was a comment on imnotsorrydotnet. The author is unknown to me, and it's long but I think it's well worth getting a cuppa and reading the whole thing. It's a christian prochoice argument.

Christianity is an incredibly simple religion. Christ did the hard part by dying on the cross for our sins. Then, all that we have to do is believe in Christ. That's easy; all that we have to do is say "I believe". After that, it's love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Again, that's easy. Everyone loves God. The next part is easy also. We love our neighbor, just hate their sins or things they do. Not only that, if everything else fails, all that we have to do is confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, and our sins are forgiven. Since Christ loves us and died for our sins, He surely wouldn't let us go to hell. Add to this the supernatural help Christ promises us in this life. It's like Christ giving us a million dollars with no strings attached. We would be crazy to not take it.

Everything would be great if Christ had just shut up and left it at that.

In Matthew 7:21, Christ said, "Not every one who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father which is in heaven". Christ says similar things in John: 15, 14:23-24 and 15:6. Christ can tell very quickly who really believes in Him and those who are just talking. It is by our actions that He can tell what we really believe. We can't buy our way into heaven with good deeds; that comes from God's grace. We also can't fake belief or faith in Christ, all that Christ has to do is look at what we do to tell what we really believe.

In John 14:34, Christ says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another". Christ says this again in Matthew 22:37-40, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27-28 and in John 15:12 and 17. Christ is very clear about what happens to us if our love isn't translated into action. Matthew 25:41-46 41 Then He will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: 42 For I was hungry, and you gave me no food: I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink: 42 I was a stranger, and you didn't take me in: naked, and you didn't clothed me: sick and in prison and you didn't care for me. 43 Then they will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? 44 Then He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do to one of the least of these; you did not do for me. 45 And these will go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous to eternal life.

Christ tells us that we will go to hell for doing many things but this is the only time He tells us that we will go to hell if we don't do something.

This presents a huge problem for religious leaders. If people spend their time, effort and money feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty etc., as Christ commanded, they can't build churches or pay their religious leaders a salary. We all have a limited amount of time, effort and money that we can give to religion. Religious leaders have come up with two very simple solutions. First, they just ignore these passages or make token efforts like giving some old clothes in a clothing drive, a few cans of food to a food pantry or work in a soup kitchen every once in a while. And yet there are literally hundreds of millions of people who go hungry every day. This is hundreds of millions of people who will say that we didn't give them food or drink or shelter or clothing or medical help or visit them in prison. What do we tell God then? It is hard to care for these hundreds of millions of people. A few live in this country but most of them live in Africa, Asia or Latin America. Out of sight and out of mind, except to Christ, of course.

The second thing religious leaders do is to divert attention from doing what Christ commanded. Here are some of the many ways they do this. Abortion is a common way that religious leaders divert attention from doing what Christ commanded. The Pro-Life supporters consider themselves as doing God's will in "thou shalt not kill" and "Whatever you do to the least of my brethren". They consider the fetus to be the very, very least of God's brethren. This is easy. All they have to do is pass laws against abortion or otherwise prevent abortions and they have done God's will.

Most of the supporters of the "Pro-Life" movement view this disagreement as being between those who are doing God's will and those who find having a baby to be inconvenient. In reality, it is a disagreement between those who will take responsibility for the child after it is born and those that believe their responsibility ends with the birth of the child.

To understand what they really do though, imagine a man who does God's will of "go forth and multiply" Genesis 9:7. He rapes as many women as possible to produce as many children as possible. He is doing God's will and thus insuring he will go to heaven. He doesn't care what happens to the children he fathers, his responsibility ended when he fathered the children. It is the woman's responsibility to care for the child. If she can't or doesn't, that's not his problem. This is exactly what the people who support the Pro-Life position do.

Since our fictitious man is following a teaching in the bible, he may be convinced that will earn him a place in heaven. Most might disagree. But it really doesn't matter what any of us think or believe, the only thing that matters is what God decides.
The people who support the "Pro-Life" movement have no intention of taking care of the children they force to be born. They don't even know who or where these children are. - Most of them live in Latin America, Africa or Asia. - More important, they don't think or care enough about them to want to relieve the constant hunger, thirst, and grinding poverty that these millions of children suffer all day every day.

Most supporters of the "Pro-Life" movement can't imagine themselves being cast into everlasting fire as Christ promised. They think of themselves as the "good guys" doing God's work. But according to Christ, they aren’t doing his work at all.
In Matthew 7:15-20 and Luke 6:43-49, Christ said "Beware of false prophets...you will know them by their fruits". It is so easy to call a fetus a child and thus the fruits of the Pro-Life movement would be saving the lives of millions of babies. Certainly, many of these children will live good, healthy and happy lives. We also know that hundreds of millions of these children will live lives of hunger, disease and despair.

What about the "sanctity of life"? It isn't one of Christ's teachings! Surely he would have mentioned it but He must have forgot. Actually, Christ does address this issue. In Matthew 15:9 and Mark 7:6-9, Christ said, "full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition". It is easy to come up with all kinds of traditions and declare them inspired by God. It is very hard to actually practice love as Christ commanded.

The concept of "the sanctity of life” does one very important thing. It gives people an excuse for NOT following the teachings of Christ. Now people don't have to look at the "fruit" of their actions and see if they are "love". If you think "love" means abandoning a child to hunger, disease and hopelessness, please trade your own children, grandchildren or other loved ones with these children. Do this without any chance of ever seeing them again. After all, many times, Christ commanded us to "love one another as I have love you".

What if your parents aborted you? If a soul exists, your soul would be with all the other souls of those whose parents had miscarriages. Billions or even trillions of fetuses die as miscarriages and good "Pro-Life" couples just flush them down the drain. If these fetuses have a soul, what happens to it? The same thing whether it died from a miscarriage or an abortion. If it doesn't go straight to heaven, then every Christian married couple is condemning the souls of their fetuses to hell or someplace else equally bad.

One thing we know for sure is that if you go to eternal damnation, you will wish to God that you had been aborted. Not only that, but you will curse to hell those who caused you to be born.

Some churches put crosses out to symbolize fetuses that have been aborted. They should display a thousand crosses to symbolize the thousands of children they have deliberately let starve so they can go to a nice church and pay a clergy tell them how God loves them for doing this. Certainly, Christ has a special place for them for letting all of these children starve.
The real fruits of the supporters of the "Pro-Life" movement are hundred of millions of children who are hungry.

Some people pretend to believe in a "literal" interpretation of the bible. To them, this guarantees that they don't make any mistakes and thus ensures that they will go straight to heaven. They don't really believe in a literal interpretation of course. In Matthew 19:23-24, Mark 10:25 and Luke 18:25, Christ says that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven". It is literally impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Do they really believe that it is impossible for a rich man to go to heaven? Of course not! They picked out the belief in evolution because it is so much easier to deal with than feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty etc. They don't even pretend to love their neighbor as themselves. This is just an easy way to trick themselves into believing they are going to heaven. But according to Christ, they condemn themselves to hell for not putting love into practice.

Climate change is another topic where Christ can easily see if we really believe in Him. Parts of Africa, Asia and Latin American are suffering from severe drought or flooding because of climate change. But many people, who pretend to believe in Christ, would sooner enjoy their good lives in this world rather than reduce their energy use. They have all kinds of excuses. Climate change really isn't happening. It's a natural cycle. It might improve our conditions here. Ultimately though, they just don't care what their actions do to other people.

Others talk about homosexuality and other people's sins of whatever type. It's a matter of looking at the splinter in someone else's eye rather than the log in our own. Of course, it is always so much easier to worry about what someone else is doing rather than do the things Christ commanded.

What about forgiveness of sins? To most people, these are magic words and all they have to do is say them and they get into heaven free. Actually, very few people really want forgiveness. What they really want is to continue doing what they have always done and just not be punished for their sins. They believe that God is too stupid to know the difference.

These ideas must be the work of the devil because they challenge so much of "traditional" Christian thinking. Let's use the teaching of Christ to determine if this is the work of a false prophet (Matthew 7:15, Mark 13:22 and Luke 21:8) or of the blind leading the blind (Matthew 15:14 and Luke 6:39). Christ said, by their fruit you will know them (Matthew 16-20 and Luke 6:44). Which actions do you think follow Christ's teaching to love one another as He has loved us? Did we give money to build a new church or did we give money to feed the hungry? Did we spend our time trying to convert others to our view of Christianity or did we spend our time giving drink to the thirsty? Did we spend our effort forcing more babies to be born or do we spend our effort feeding the millions of hungry babies who have already been born?

Keep in mind that doing what Christ commanded isn't easy. There are corrupt governments, warlords, drug lords and crooks of all kinds out there ready to steal the food, water, medicine and other supplies given to those who need them. We have to decide if we want to keep our hard earned money for ourselves and our own little congregation or tackle these problems as Christ commanded.

In Matthew 4:4, Christ says, "Man can't live by bread alone, but by the word of God". That means we don't have to worry about bread for the hungry, we just have to tell them what Christ said, doesn't it? Most people understand that Christ was talking to people who have bread and not those who need bread.

In Matthew 7:13 and Luke 13:24, Christ tells us that the broad, easy way leads to destruction. It is the narrow, hard things that lead to salvation and that few will be willing to follow it. For so many people, that means protecting themselves from the evils of this world. That's easy. What's hard is to go out into the evils of this world and practice the love that Christ has given us.
Imagine that on your way to church, you came across an infant that had been abandoned. What would you do? Would you call for help and take care of the infant? Or would you just step over it because you didn't want to be late for church? What if you knew there was an abandoned baby a couple of blocks away on a street you don't normally take? What would you do? What if you knew there were millions of babies on different continents that needed help and you didn't help them?

For many people, their final ace in the hole is Christ's teaching in Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27 and Luke 18:27. The apostles ask who can be saved and Christ answers "what is impossible for human beings is possible for God". What religious leaders want this to mean is that every other teaching of Christ can be ignored. God loves us and we can do anything we want and He'll still take us to heaven.

This presents a serious problem. Does God love all of us and we're all going to heaven no matter what we do? If so, then why does Christ (Matthew 7:13, 7:21 and 13:49-50, Mark 13:22, Luke 21:8 and John 15:6) talk about some of us going to heaven and some of us going to hell?

In John 14:26, Christ said that he would send the Holy Spirit to “teach us everything and to remind us of all that He (Christ) told us”. Does anyone really believe that the Holy Spirit is sent to fix all of the things that Christ got wrong? Apparently huge numbers of people believe just that! They don’t believe the teachings of Christ or in Christ, they believe in the teachings of various “saints”, religious leaders or founders of different “Christian” religions.

Now here is the most horrible thought any Christian can imagine. What if Christ got it right the first time and didn’t forget anything? What if Christ loves us and can easily tell who loves him back by what they do about his teaching? Hundreds of millions of hungry people will be testifying on judgment day either for us or against us.

None of us can imagine that we personally are going to hell. To do so might be a sign of mental illness. We especially can’t imagine that our loved ones who have died might be in hell rather than heaven. We believe that if Christ loves us, He can’t possibly let us be led astray. We don’t believe Christ when he tells us again, again and again how our religious leaders will deceive us. Get out your own bible and read it for yourself.

Christ taught a good news, bad news type of thing. For the people willing to go out into the world and make it a better place, He promises salvation. For the rest who just sit around and praise the Lord, He promises eternal damnation. Christ clearly knew that most people would choose the “Lord, Lord” route. He told us that many are called but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). It's up to us to decide which group we will be in.